Young Earth Creation Science

The Doctrine of Creation

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According to many today, the
doctrine of creation is one of those critical doctrines that one must
believe in. In many churches, it is required belief before a person
becomes a member of the church. However, it has not always been that
way. As you will see, this is a relatively new doctrine, invented by
twentieth-century young earth creation science believers and their ministries. Let’s take
a look at this doctrine…it’s history, it’s
relevance for today, and it’s necessity for belief.

What is a Doctrine?

First, let’s look at the definition
of a doctrine. According to Webster’s, a doctrine is “teaching,
instruction.” However, doctrine as it relates to the church is much more
restrictive than this phrase. Doctrine in the church indicates a
fundamental truth that must be believed in. A few examples of
definitions are:

philosophy, philosophical system,
school of thought, ism -- (a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as
authoritative by some group or school)1

is the body of beliefs about God,
humankind, Christ, the church, and other related concepts considered
authoritative by the community of faith, becoming the standard of
interpretation and application of the Bible and the Christian faith.2

A set of accepted beliefs held by a
group. In religion, it is the set of true beliefs that define the
parameters of that belief system.3

Positions or principles held to be
sacred, or inspired, truths in a system of beliefs. In Christianity,
these beliefs are an instruction to be taught to the faithful by means
of the catechism, sermons, and through the religious dogma of the
church. The Anglican Church's Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion is an
example of religious doctrine.4

As you can see, it is clear that
doctrines of the church are key teachings that members should believe in
to associate with that particular denomination. The final definition
gives us our starting point. An example of doctrine from the Anglican
Church is the
Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, which defines the Anglican system of
belief.

Click on the link to the Thirty-Nine
articles, and scan for references to the creation. There are none. Thus,
the doctrines which are key to the Anglican
system of belief, dating from 1801, do not include any key beliefs about
the creation.

Now, let’s expand our search to
other key systems of belief. When it comes to the history of the church,
one of the most telling items about doctrines are the three creeds.
Creeds were, from the earliest days of the church, used for the purpose of
baptismal professions, in order to teach the new converts the proper path
right at the beginning of their Christian walk.5

First, the Nicene Creed comes from
the fourth century. The traditional wording6 is…

I believe in one God,

the Father
Almighty,

maker of
heaven and earth,

and of all
things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only
begotten Son of God,

begotten of
his Father before all worlds,

God of God, Light of Light,

very God of
very God,

begotten, not
made,

being of one
substance with the Father;

by whom all
things were made;

who for us
men and for our salvation

came down
from heaven,

and was
incarnate by the Holy Ghost

of the
Virgin Mary,

and was
made man;

and was
crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered
and was buried;

and the third
day he rose again

according
to the Scriptures,

and ascended
into heaven,

andsitteth on the right hand of the Father;

and he shall
come again, with glory,

to judge
both the quick and the dead;

whose kingdom
shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost the
Lord, and Giver of Live,

whoproceedeth from the Father [and the Son];

who with the
Father and the Son together

is
worshipped and glorified;

whospake by the Prophets.

And I believe one holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church;

I acknowledge one baptism for the
remission of sins;

and I look
for the resurrection of the dead,

and the
life of the world to come. AMEN.

In the third and fourth lines, the
new believer is affirming that God is the creator of all things. Note
that there is no reference to a length of creation…it merely states that
God is the creator. Thus, to become a believer in the fourth century,
there was no requirement for belief in a young earth. In fact, many of
the church fathers took II Peter 3:8 to mean the days of creation were
1,000 years long.

Next, consider the Apostles Creed.
It appears in it’s full form in the 5th century, but it has
roots all the way back to the 1st and 2ndcentury.7 It states…

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

the
Creator of heaven and earth,

and in
Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy
Spirit,

born of
the Virgin Mary,

suffered
under Pontius Pilate,

was
crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the
dead.

He ascended into heaven

and sits
at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,

whence He
shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy
catholic church,

the
communion of saints,

the
forgiveness of sins,

the
resurrection of the body,

and life
everlasting. Amen.

Once again, we have a general
statement that God is the creator, but no specific mention of the length
of time that it took. Thus, it would be no problem for an old-earth
believer to be accepted in the 2nd century church.

Third, let’s consider the
Creed of Athanasius. It dates to the
fourth century.8 Although it is the longest
creed, it does not even mention creation.

Therefore, it is clear from early
church doctrines that the length of creation was not a requirement for
faith.

Church Denominations

Now, let’s consider church denominations,
which set standards of belief for their members. As you may be aware,
Answers In Creation has a listing of
denominations which are open to an old earth (see
Denomination List). A
review of the 50 major denominations that have been reviewed shows that
only two are hostile to old earth believers (independent, fundamental
Baptist churches, and the Assemblies of God). Two others have statements
denouncing evolution, but do not have a position on the length of the
creation days. One of the two largest denominations, the Southern
Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists, do not rule out old earth belief, but
individual churches vary in their beliefs. Forty-four of fifty
denominations present no problems with old earth believers.

Is there a pattern here? The roots
of the young earth movement are with a man named George
McCready Price, a Seventh Day Adventist from
the 1900s. He was a loud voice in the move to promote six 24-hour day
creationism, starting around 1902.9, 10 Although
the Seventh-Day Adventists are now not as
restrictive, their statements on creation science have deep roots. In fact, the
modern movements, led by Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation
Research, and Kent Hovind, have their roots in
Mr. Price.11

In fact, the Baptist denominations
have historically, over the last thirty years, provided the main base for
promoting young earth creationism through the
parachurch organizations of AiG and ICR.
But what about the Assemblies of God? Their
statements of faith come from 1916, a time at which Price was preaching
his young earth creationism. Although there is no
clear ties between the two, both the Assemblies and Adventists
beliefs arose about the same time (the Assemblies had been loosely forming
since the 1890s).

The pattern is that young earth
creationism as a movement did not start until the 1900’s, and then only in a few select
denominations, in which it continues to this day, with the help of a few
outspoken individuals and third-party organizations. Interestingly,
during the fundamentalist movement of the 1920s, early fundamentalists
railed against evolution, but did not make any clear prohibitions against
an old earth. Evolution was the enemy, not an old earth.10

Why did the father of young earth
creation science, Price, preach so adamantly about creation? Seventh Day
Adventists claimed that they had a vision, in which they saw the creation
of the world in six 24-hour days. Thus, you could easily say that today’s
young earth movement is based on a vision (someone’s dream?)…not a solid
base upon which to make a real doctrine!12

Creation Becomes a Doctrine!

We have just looked at the churches
that made creationism a fundamental belief. It appears that this
doctrine did not exist prior to 1900. It is a 20th century
creation, and is only adhered to by a few churches (even the Southern
Baptists do not claim it is a doctrine, although many of their churches
will argue for it).

Starting in the 1920s,
Fundamentalism grew, and eventually several individuals saw the need to
defend the young earth position of creation. There were many, but most
significant of these is the ministry of Henry Morris, who founded the
Institute for Creation Research in 1970. Through this ministry (which
took off in 1961 with his book The Genesis Flood) he and his disciples
proclaim creation as a doctrine. This can be seen in Chapter 17 of his
book, Biblical Creationism, first published in 1993, and in
Impact Article Number 132, from 1984.

Conclusion

In summary, young earth
creation science ministries
of the 20th century have been successful in adding the doctrine of creation to the
church. For nearly 1,900 years, this doctrine was not needed. However,
because of a vision (dream) from some Seventh Day Adventists, we are now
stuck in this creation battle, as young earth / old earth proponents argue
their position against each other.

A young earth doctrine is not a
part of most church denominations, nor was it ever a part of any pre
twentieth-century church organizations which were responsible for setting
doctrinal beliefs. As such, this doctrine should pass into history.

Millions of people, when given the
choice of believing in a young earth, when all the evidence from God’s
creation says it is old, were turned away from the gospel.
Fundamentalists of the 1920s and later made a fundamental mistake by
insisting on a young earth. From that time, the word “Fundamentalism” has
been used by the secular world to stereotype Christians, and it has done
much harm. It is clear from scripture that you can believe in an old
earth, and still believe in an inerrant Bible. You can be a
fundamentalist and believe in an old earth.

We must stop turning people off to
the Bible by insisting on young earth belief. Yes, many thousands have
been saved by young-earth ministries…but compared with the millions that
have been lost, the choice is clear.

12 Special
Revelation, through dreams and direct contact with God, is believed by all
non-Pentecostal churches to have ended after
the Apostles departed the earth.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision
for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to
what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the
inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while
still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we
have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in
this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If
you are a young-earth creationism believer,
click here.